When a jobless migrant – a “hobo” or “tramp” – wandered into Springfield during the Great Depression, he might have been in for a surprise: a well-stocked shelter offering meals, a bed, work opportunities and even recreation.
Springfield’s transient-aid program was part of the Federal Transient Service, set up in 1933 to help communities deal with the hordes of people traveling the country to find work. The program lasted only about two years, until the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt developed a more extensive welfare system. In the meantime, though, the transient system helped hundreds of people a day in Springfield alone.
 Springfield opened its first three shelters in January 1934. They weren’t enough. Some 500 transients overflowed the available beds, and within a month, officials had to seek more beds in downtown rooming houses and residential hotels.
The original three shelters were at 131½ N. Sixth St.; 11th and Adams streets (the former Brown Hotel); and Ninth and Adams streets (in an old Illinois Terminal Railroad freight house).
 An Illinois State Journal reporter visited one of the shelters shortly after it opened.
Each shelter station contains a number of army cots on which the unfortunates seek nightly repose. There are showers for bathing, kitchens for preparing food, and dining rooms in which it is served. Those who are able are expected to work 18 hours a week in return for their succor.
By May 1935, Springfield had at least five shelters: the original three, plus additional ones at 10th and Adams streets and Eighth and Washington streets.
That may not have been a complete count: the 1934 Springfield city directory also lists a “Transient Home for Women” at 704 E. Monroe St. However, Springfield transient bureau director James Maxwell told the Journal at one point the number of women registered as transients here was “so small as to be negligible.”
Maxwell, a former YMCA official from Detroit, headed a staff of 11 employees. Local social service agencies, including the YMCA, YWCA and Travelers Aid Society, also provided support. But much of the work was done by shelter residents themselves. For instance, the Journal’s January 1934 story reported 42 transients operated the shelters’ combined laundry, which was in Shelter No. 2, the former hotel.
At shelter No. 3 (Ninth and Adams) is a bakery, (where) experienced bakers, gleaned from the transients seeking aid, prepare 400 loaves of bread daily for the local consumption. At shelter No. 2 is a barber shop, where three experienced barbers keep all the shelter “guests” in trim. Those physically unable to wield a razor are given free shaves.
 Residents did finish work, like painting, when the shelter buildings were remodeled, and transients with woodworking skills built 150 chairs, which were distributed among the three shelters. Other skilled, if jobless, migrants sewed their compatriots’ clothes and mended their shoes.
During the summer of 1934, shelter residents raised their own vegetables on a 60-acre truck farm near 18th Street and Ridgely Avenue. Some migrants cut firewood, which was given away to Springfield’s own impoverished residents. The laborers earned 50 cents to $3 a week, plus their room and board.Â
The transient bureau had a recreation center in the 100 block of North Eighth Street, and shelter residents competed in YMCA-sponsored sporting events. The transients’ swim team, led by a multisport athlete named Ray Hartenberger – nothing else is known of him – romped over teams from six other organizations in the Y’s 1934 Community Club competition.
A group of transient entertainers (dancers, singers, a contortionist and a “Hill Billy Band” among them) put on a well-attended vaudeville show at Lincoln School in February 1934. In turn, the Illinois State Register said, 70 children living in the transient shelters were treated to a Christmas party, including Santa, that December.
In full operation, the Springfield shelters typically housed 800-900 migrants every night.
Considering how many homeless men went through the shelters during the two years they operated, they seem to have been relatively trouble-free – less than one percent of registered residents had criminal records, Maxwell said. Newspaper stories report a few fights, some thefts and a couple dozen arrests, often for crimes allegedly committed elsewhere.
In what apparently was the most serious incident, shelter intake manager Kenneth Corley was stabbed by a drunken transient, William Murphy. Corley recovered, and Murphy was sentenced to seven months at the Vandalia state farm.
Overall, Mayor John “Buddy” Kapp told a luncheon club in 1934, “the Springfield transient bureau is regarded with more friendliness by local people than is true in other cities.”
The Transient Bureau operated in about 300 cities nationwide, including Cairo, East St. Louis, Moline, Rockford, Danville and Chicago in Illinois. The Federal Transient Service shut down in early 1936, to be replaced by the new Works Progress Administration.
Mike Kienzler of Springfield is editor of SangamonLink.org, the online encyclopedia of the Sangamon County Historical Society, where this article first appeared. SangamonLink, a free service of the historical society, has almost 1,500 entries on all facets of Sangamon County history.
This article appears in Citizens want a voice in CWLP.
